asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if there is any difference between the plant health controls which have been in operation to date on any imports of potatoes which have taken place and the controls which will be allowed to operate in EEC conditions; and, if so, if he will indicate the differences and their significance for Irish producers.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Potato Import Controls.
13.
There is no EEC regulation or directive in operation dealing with plant health control on imports of potatoes.
Is not the present position that when the Minister decides to sanction imports of potatoes, which is rare, it is under stringent health control regulations? As members of the Common Market will we be free to implement those regulations?
The present position is that, imports of potatoes are very seriously curtailed, and when they are imported they are imported for the propagation of seed. The seed is imported in very small quantities indeed and is propagated in strict isolation. There are two EEC directives in operation for the control of disease but neither one nor the other would be the cause of any great anxiety to us.
May I take it that our control on the import of potatoes will not be in any sense interfered with by membership of the EEC?
I do not anticipate any difficulty in our present disease-free situation which we would be entitled to preserve. Just as in the case of cattle disease, and our disease-free status in that field, we are entitled to preserve our disease-free status in plant disease as well.
Can the Minister tell me whether or not there will be a change in our import controls as they operate at the moment on potatoes? That is the question I am asking the Minister. Can he answer that?
I cannot, because the answer to it will depend on decisions that have not yet been taken in Brussels in this particular regard.
What decisions are they?
I think the Deputy has asked enough supplementaries. May I ask one? Did the Minister for Health, quite recently, not talk about the ill-effects on pregnant women of eating potatoes which are the subject of blight? I think, of course, the Minister for Health was wrong; but is the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries aware of the statement on behalf of the Government that potatoes diseased from blight do cause pregnant women trouble?
That is a separate question.
I do not often ask a long supplementary; other people do and we hear long answers from Ministers, too. Is the Minister aware of this, as part of Government policy?
This question deals with the import of potatoes.
We have disease-free potatoes in this country. Therefore, he must have been talking about imported potatoes.
The relevance of this question escapes me, but if the Deputy is implying that when I talk about the disease-free status of this country in relation to potatoes I mean all potato diseases, I do not mean any such thing. Potato blight is common, as far as I know, to all temperate countries where potatoes are grown, but there are several other diseases of potatoes which we do not have here, fortunately, and we will endeavour, with great vigour, to ensure that we continue in that way.
Question No. 14.
The Minister for Health talked about yellow potatoes——
The question does not relate to yellow potatoes.
He was talking about potatoes with holes in them. Potatoes which have suffered from blight do not have holes in them but they are not edible.
There are holes in the Deputy's supplementary question. It is totally irrelevant. The effect of blighted potatoes on pregnant women has nothing whatever to do with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Is there joint responsibility in this Government or not?
We are not going to argue at this stage. Question No. 14.